When applying to a business school the GMAT always comes to our mind. For many, the GMAT has been and is the obvious test for a business school application. However, business schools also accept GRE scores for their MBA applications. The choice between GMAT and GRE depends on a lot of factors. However, if you’re also planning to apply to other graduate programs other than MBA which requires you to take the GRE then GRE would be an ideal choice for you.
In case, you decide to take the GRE then there are a few questions that would come to your mind.
What is a good GRE score? How much should I score on the GRE? What should be my target GRE score?
In this article, we’ll answer these questions based on the average GRE scores of the incoming classes of business schools each year.
What is a good GRE score?
A good GRE score is one that will make your overall application stronger and more competitive. If you feel you have an average profile or you belong to a competitive candidate pool then follow this simple rule of thumb.
Take a look at the average GRE scores of the latest incoming class of your target business schools. Select the business school that has the highest average GRE score. Add at least 5 points to that score and the resultant score is your target GRE score. In short, this will be your good GRE score.
For example, there are 5 business schools on your list. Suppose, the average GRE scores of the latest incoming classes of these schools were 326, 320, 321, 320, and 324.
So, your good GMAT score or target GMAT score would be 326+5=331.
Now, that you know the concept of a good GRE score, the next information you would need is the average GRE scores of top business schools.
However, before that let’s take a look at how popular the GRE is among business school applicants. We can do this by understanding the percentage of applicants applying to business schools with a GRE score.
Percentage of business school applicants taking the GRE
| S. No. | Business School | % GRE 2021 | % GRE 2020 | % GRE 2019 | % GRE 2018 | % GRE 2017 | % GRE 2016 | 2-Year Trend | 6-Year Trend |
| 1 | Stanford GSB | 24% | 25% | 19% | 18% | 16% | 13% | -1 | 11 |
| 2 | Chicago Booth | 18% | 17% | 13% | NA | NA | NA | 1 | NA |
| 3 | Penn (Wharton) | 24% | NA | 15% | 10% | 11% | 9% | NA | 15 |
| 4 | Northwestern (Kellogg) | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 5 | Harvard Business School | 29% | 22% | 20% | 15% | 12% | NA | 7 | NA |
| 6 | MIT (Sloan) | 24% | NA | 24% | NA | 18% | 18% | NA | 6 |
| 7 | Columbia | 23% | 24% | 16% | 16% | 9% | 7% | -1 | 16 |
| 8 | Dartmouth (Tuck) | 37% | 39% | 21% | 15% | 15% | 13% | -2 | 24 |
| 9 | UC-Berkeley (Haas) | 36% | 35% | 21% | 11% | 10% | NA | 1 | NA |
| 10 | Yale SOM | 36% | 35% | 26% | 25% | NA | 22% | 1 | 14 |
| 11 | Duke (Fuqua) | 33% | 38% | 23% | 14% | 11% | 11% | -5 | 22 |
| 12 | Michigan (Ross) | 33% | 37% | 34% | 24% | 19% | 14% | -4 | 19 |
| 13 | NYU (Stern) | 18% | 23% | 18% | 19% | 12% | 13% | -5 | 5 |
| 14 | Virginia (Darden) | 38% | 28% | 23% | 18% | 8% | 8% | 10 | 30 |
| 15 | Cornell (Johnson) | 19% | 18% | 18% | 14% | 11% | 10% | 1 | 9 |
| 16 | Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) | 17% | 11% | 19% | 14% | 11% | 8% | 6 | 9 |
| 17 | UCLA (Anderson) | 19% | 14% | 10% | 9% | 10% | 8% | 5 | 11 |
| 18 | USC (Marshall) | 31% | 25% | 29% | 20% | 21% | 13% | 6 | 18 |
| 19 | UNC (Kenan-Flagler) | 26% | 22% | 48% | 30% | 20% | 21% | 4 | 5 |
| 20 | Texas (McCombs) | 42% | 38% | 33% | 23% | 18% | 18% | 4 | 24 |
| 21 | Washington (Foster) | 36% | 27% | 21% | 16% | 17% | 6% | 9 | 30 |
| 22 | Indiana (Kelley) | 15% | 26% | 23% | 14% | 10% | 8% | -11 | 7 |
| 23 | Georgetown (McDonough) | 48% | 54% | 43% | 33% | 28% | 22% | -6 | 26 |
| 24 | Rice (Jones) | 35% | 29% | 31% | 22% | 12% | 11% | 6 | 24 |
| 25 | Vanderbilt (Owen) | 23% | 19% | 16% | 12% | 13% | 14% | 4 | 9 |
| 26 | Emory (Goizueta) | NA | NA | NA | NA | 13% | 13% | NA | NA |
| 27 | Georgia Tech (Scheller) | 20% | 26% | 29% | 35% | 25% | 23% | -6 | -3 |
| 28 | BYU (Marriott) | NA | NA | 19% | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 29 | Washington (Olin) | 70% | 71% | 49% | 50% | 27% | 34% | -1 | 36 |
| 30 | Minnesota (Carlson) | 20% | 36% | 30% | 24% | 22% | 16% | -16 | 4 |
| 31 | Notre Dame (Mendoza) | 17% | 37% | 24% | 13% | 20% | 11% | -20 | 6 |
| 32 | Penn State (Smeal) | 33% | 19% | 35% | 26% | 24% | 16% | 14 | 17 |
| 33 | Michigan State (Broad) | 14% | 23% | 14% | 29% | 8% | 6% | -9 | 8 |
| 34 | Arizona State (Carey) | 46% | 48% | 43% | 40% | 30% | 30% | -2 | 16 |
| 35 | Ohio State (Fisher) | 44% | 53% | 35% | 31% | 45% | 23% | -9 | 21 |
| 35 | Texas A&M (Mays) | 38% | 29% | 39% | 36% | 33% | 39% | 9 | -1 |
| 37 | Rochester (Simon) | 19% | 23% | 27% | 20% | 23% | 14% | -4 | 5 |
| 38 | Texas-Dallas (Jindal) | 33% | 36% | 62% | 40% | 45% | 32% | -3 | 1 |
| 39 | Wisconsin | 30% | 15% | 16% | 10% | 12% | 10% | 15 | 20 |
| 40 | Maryland (Smith) | 22% | 28% | 33% | 38% | 31% | 29% | -6 | -7 |
| 41 | Boston (Questrom) | 29% | 49% | 52% | 45% | 29% | 42% | -20 | -13 |
| 42 | Georgia (Terry) | 32% | 42% | 34% | 33% | 33% | 31% | -10 | 1 |
| 43 | Pittsburgh (Katz) | 24% | 58% | 34% | 22% | 29% | 22% | -34 | 2 |
| 44 | Southern Methodist (Cox) | 20% | 31% | 40% | 47% | 20% | 35% | -11 | -15 |
| 45 | UC-Irvine (Merage) | 12% | 7% | 20% | 11% | 14% | 20% | 5 | -8 |
| 46 | Utah (Eccles) | 40% | 12% | NA | NA | NA | NA | 28 | NA |
| 47 | Tennessee-Knoxville (Haslam) | 37% | 40% | 67% | 50% | 50% | 48% | -3 | -11 |
| 48 | Florida (Warrington) | 62% | 45% | 50% | 24% | 21% | 23% | 17 | 39 |
| 49 | Alabama (Manderson) | 19% | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 50 | Miami (Herbert) | 17% | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 51 | Fordham (Gabelli) | 26% | 16% | 36% | 39% | NA | NA | 10 | NA |
| 52 | UC-Davis | 5% | 15% | 9% | 11% | 21% | 16% | -10 | -11 |
There are a few business schools that do not give the percentage numbers. Northwestern Kellogg is one of the prominent names on this list.
Taking a look at the 6-year trend we can easily see that popularity of the GRE has increased among business school applicants.
Nearly one-fourth to one-third of the top 15 business school applicants submit their applications with a GRE score.
So, in case you’re looking to take the GRE for your business school application, then this data is very encouraging for you.
Let’s take a look at the average GRE scores of top business schools now.
Average GRE scores of business schools
| S. No. | Business School | 2021 Total GRE Score | 2021 GRE Average Quant Score | 2021 GRE Average Verbal Score | 2020 Total GRE Score | 2019 Total GRE Score |
| 1 | Stanford GSB | 330 | 165 | 165 | 329 | 330 |
| 2 | Chicago (Booth) | 325 | 163 | 162 | 324 | NA |
| 3 | Penn (Wharton) | 324 | 162 | 162 | 322 | 324 |
| 4 | Northwestern (Kellogg) | 327 | 165 | 162 | 326 | NA |
| 5 | Harvard Business School | 326 | 163 | 163 | 326 | 326 |
| 6 | MIT (Sloan) | 325 | 163 | 162 | NA | 324 |
| 7 | Columbia | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 8 | Dartmouth (Tuck) | 324 | 162 | 162 | 320 | 324 |
| 9 | UC-Berkeley (Haas) | 323 | 162 | 161 | 322 | 323 |
| 10 | Yale SOM | 330 | 165 | 165 | 328 | 329 |
| 11 | Duke (Fuqua) | 317 | 158 | 159 | 314 | 319 |
| 12 | Michigan (Ross) | 320 | 160 | 160 | 317 | 319 |
| 13 | NYU (Stern) | 324 | 162 | 162 | 324 | 322 |
| 14 | Virginia (Darden) | 321 | 160 | 161 | 319 | 321 |
| 15 | Cornell (Johnson) | 323 | 162 | 161 | 321 | 320 |
| 16 | CMU (Tepper) | 323 | 164 | 159 | 321 | 323 |
| 17 | UCLA (Anderson) | 326 | 163 | 163 | 316 | 326 |
| 18 | USC (Marshall) | 321 | 161 | 160 | 321 | 320 |
| 19 | UNC (Kenan-Flagler) | 316 | 158 | 158 | 317 | 316 |
| 20 | Texas-Austin (McCombs) | 319 | 160 | 159 | 318 | 318 |
| 21 | Washington (Foster) | 321 | 161 | 160 | 318 | 319 |
| 22 | Indiana (Kelley) | 315 | 157 | 158 | 312 | 310 |
| 23 | Georgetown (McDonough) | 317 | 159 | 158 | 317 | 315 |
| 24 | Rice (Jones) | 317 | 160 | 157 | 313 | 317 |
| 25 | Vanderbilt (Owen) | 315 | 157 | 158 | 310 | 315 |
| 26 | Emory (Goizueta) | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 27 | Georgia Tech (Scheller) | 319 | 160 | 159 | 318 | 317 |
| 28 | BYU (Marriott) | NA | NA | NA | NA | 321 |
| 29 | Washington (Olin) | 310 | 155 | 155 | 311 | 310 |
| 30 | Minnesota (Carlson) | 319 | 159 | 160 | 321 | 317 |
| 31 | Notre Dame (Mendoza) | 317 | 158 | 159 | 313 | 315 |
| 32 | Penn State (Smeal) | 313 | 158 | 155 | 311 | 310 |
| 33 | Michigan State (Broad) | 316 | 158 | 158 | 308 | 306 |
| 34 | Arizona State (Carey) | 312 | 156 | 156 | 314 | 310 |
| 35 | Ohio State (Fisher) | 311 | 155 | 156 | 311 | 309 |
| 35 | Texas A&M (Mays) | 308 | 155 | 153 | 307 | 308 |
| 37 | Rochester (Simon) | 317 | 159 | 158 | 314 | 312 |
| 38 | Texas-Dallas (Jindal) | 314 | 158 | 156 | 310 | 309 |
| 39 | Wisconsin | 313 | 157 | 156 | 312 | 315 |
| 40 | Maryland (Smith) | 309 | 155 | 154 | 310 | 307 |
| 41 | Boston (Questrom) | 315 | 159 | 156 | 312 | 313 |
| 42 | Georgia (Terry) | 310 | 155 | 155 | 312 | 314 |
| 43 | Pittsburgh (Katz) | 310 | 158 | 152 | 307 | 308 |
| 44 | SMU (Cox) | 307 | 154 | 153 | 310 | 308 |
| 45 | UC-Irvine (Merage) | 310 | 153 | 157 | 322 | 311 |
| 46 | Utah (Eccles) | 317 | 157 | 160 | 306 | NA |
| 47 | Tennessee-Knoxville (Haslam) | 314 | 158 | 156 | 314 | 311 |
| 48 | Florida (Warrington) | 313 | 157 | 156 | 310 | 316 |
| 49 | Alabama (Manderson) | 310 | 155 | 155 | NA | NA |
| 50 | Miami (Herbert) | 307 | 153 | 154 | NA | NA |
| 51 | Fordham (Gabelli) | 310 | 155 | 155 | 308 | 305 |
| 52 | UC-Davis | 326 | 164 | 162 | 314 | 316 |
Stanford and Yale SOM have the highest average GRE score of 330 for their class of 2023. All the top business schools command an average GRE score of 320+ for their incoming classes. Therefore, it’s safe to assume that your target GRE score for business school admissions should be above 320.
Now, let’s take a look at average GRE scores from 2016 to 2021 and see if there’s an upward trend in average GRE scores. If there is a major uptrend in the GRE scores then your target GRE score would also have to go up accordingly.
Average GRE score trend (2016-2021)
| S. No. | Business School | 2021 GRE | 2020 GRE | 2019 GRE | 2018 GRE | 2017 GRE | 2016 GRE | 2-Year Trend (Total) | 6-Year Trend (Total) |
| 1 | Stanford GSB | 330 | 329 | 330 | 330 | 329 | 329 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Chicago (Booth) | 325 | 324 | NA | NA | NA | NA | 1 | NA |
| 3 | Wharton | 324 | 322 | 324 | NA | NA | NA | 2 | NA |
| 4 | Northwestern (Kellogg) | 327 | 326 | NA | NA | NA | NA | 1 | NA |
| 5 | Harvard Business School | 326 | 326 | 326 | 328 | 328 | NA | Even | NA |
| 6 | MIT (Sloan) | 325 | NA | 324 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 7 | Columbia | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 8 | Dartmouth (Tuck) | 324 | 320 | 324 | NA | 319 | 320 | 4 | 4 |
| 9 | UC-Berkeley (Haas) | 323 | 322 | 323 | 329 | 325 | NA | 1 | NA |
| 10 | Yale SOM | 330 | 328 | 329 | 328 | 329 | 328 | 2 | 2 |
| 11 | Duke (Fuqua) | 317 | 314 | 319 | 319 | 321 | 319 | 3 | -2 |
| 12 | Michigan (Ross) | 320 | 317 | 319 | 320 | 320 | 322 | 3 | -2 |
| 13 | NYU (Stern) | 324 | 324 | 322 | 324 | 323 | 324 | Even | Even |
| 14 | Virginia (Darden) | 321 | 319 | 321 | 328 | 323 | 326 | 2 | -5 |
| 15 | Cornell (Johnson) | 323 | 321 | 320 | 320 | 322 | 320 | 2 | 3 |
| 16 | CMU (Tepper) | 323 | 321 | 323 | 320 | 321 | 323 | 2 | Even |
| 17 | UCLA (Anderson) | 326 | 316 | 326 | 326 | 328 | 320 | 10 | 6 |
| 18 | USC (Marshall) | 321 | 321 | 320 | 318 | 319 | 316 | Even | 5 |
| 19 | UNC (Kenan-Flagler) | 316 | 317 | 316 | 317 | 316 | 317 | -1 | -1 |
| 20 | Texas-Austin (McCombs) | 319 | 318 | 318 | 317 | 316 | 319 | 1 | Even |
| 21 | Washington (Foster) | 321 | 318 | 319 | 315 | 318 | 317 | 3 | 4 |
| 22 | Indiana (Kelley) | 315 | 312 | 310 | 315 | 317 | 314 | 3 | 1 |
| 23 | Georgetown (McDonough) | 317 | 317 | 315 | 317 | 314 | 315 | Even | 2 |
| 24 | Rice (Jones) | 317 | 313 | 317 | 317 | 321 | 314 | 4 | 3 |
| 25 | Vanderbilt (Owen) | 315 | 310 | 315 | 311 | 313 | 314 | 5 | 1 |
| 26 | Emory (Goizueta) | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 27 | Georgia Tech (Scheller) | 319 | 318 | 317 | 321 | 320 | 324 | 1 | -5 |
| 28 | BYU (Marriott) | NA | NA | 321 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 29 | Washington (Olin) | 310 | 311 | 310 | 310 | 312 | 315 | -1 | -5 |
| 30 | Minnesota (Carlson) | 319 | 321 | 317 | 318 | 318 | 320 | -2 | -1 |
| 31 | Notre Dame (Mendoza) | 317 | 313 | 315 | 314 | 315 | 313 | 4 | 4 |
| 32 | Penn State (Smeal) | 313 | 311 | 310 | 308 | 314 | 315 | 2 | -2 |
| 33 | Michigan State (Broad) | 316 | 308 | 306 | 306 | 307 | 309 | 8 | 7 |
| 34 | Arizona State (Carey) | 312 | 314 | 310 | 313 | 311 | 311 | -2 | 1 |
| 35 | Ohio State (Fisher) | 311 | 311 | 309 | 313 | 314 | 313 | Even | -2 |
| 35 | Texas A&M (Mays) | 308 | 307 | 308 | 309 | 311 | 308 | 1 | Even |
| 37 | Rochester (Simon) | 317 | 314 | 312 | 316 | 314 | 315 | 3 | 2 |
| 38 | Texas-Dallas (Jindal) | 314 | 310 | 309 | 312 | 312 | 311 | 4 | 3 |
| 39 | Wisconsin | 313 | 312 | 315 | 318 | 315 | 318 | 1 | -5 |
| 40 | Maryland (Smith) | 309 | 310 | 307 | 309 | 309 | 310 | -1 | -1 |
| 41 | Boston (Questrom) | 315 | 312 | 313 | 312 | 315 | 315 | 3 | Even |
| 42 | Georgia (Terry) | 310 | 312 | 314 | 315 | 313 | 316 | -2 | -4 |
| 43 | Pittsburgh (Katz) | 310 | 307 | 308 | 308 | 307 | 305 | 3 | 5 |
| 44 | SMU (Cox) | 307 | 310 | 308 | 309 | 307 | 312 | -3 | -5 |
| 45 | UC-Irvine (Merage) | 310 | 322 | 311 | 316 | 315 | 316 | -12 | -6 |
| 46 | Utah (Eccles) | 317 | 306 | NA | NA | NA | NA | 11 | NA |
| 47 | Tennessee-Knoxville (Haslam) | 314 | 314 | 311 | 311 | 310 | 308 | Even | 6 |
| 48 | Florida (Warrington) | 313 | 310 | 316 | 310 | NA | NA | 3 | NA |
| 49 | Alabama (Manderson) | 310 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 50 | Miami (Herbert) | 307 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 51 | Fordham (Gabelli) | 310 | 308 | 305 | 305 | NA | NA | 2 | NA |
| 52 | UC-Davis | 326 | 314 | 316 | 323 | 321 | 316 | 12 | 10 |
The average GRE scores have been quite stable since 2016. No major increase or decrease for top business schools. Therefore, you can assume that for 2022-23 admissions the average GRE scores would remain stable.
Average GRE scores FAQs
The average GRE score of the incoming class of Harvard Business School is 326.
You should at least score 332 on the GRE if you’re planning to apply to M7 business schools.
A good GRE score is the one that makes your profile stronger. A good GRE score would be at least 5 points higher than last year’s average GRE score of your target business school.
